James Bond: Ranking The 007 Actors From Worst To Best

3. Pierce Brosnan

Pierce Brosnan was originally offered the role of James Bond in 1987, but his commitments to television's Remington Steele saw Timothy Dalton cast instead. Almost a decade later, and after the legal problems surrounding the franchise had been resolved, Brosnan made his debut as 007 in spectacular fashion as Bond returned to the big screen after a six-year absence in Goldeneye, rejuvenating the critical and commercial reputation of the franchise in the process.

However, despite Brosnan's consistently strong performances in the lead role, the movies themselves suffered from a steady decline in quality, his final outing Die Another Day in particular suffering from a nonsensical plot and an over-abundance of ridiculous CGI action scenes. Even though they earned a combined total of over a billion dollars at the box office, Brosnan's final three outings as Bond became increasingly overstuffed and resulted in three forgettable entries in the franchise, in spite of the actor's best efforts.

While his tenure as James Bond didn't provide the strongest movies, there is no denying that Pierce Brosnan was a great choice to play the character. As well as looking the part, his take on 007 balanced the wit and humour of Roger Moore, the charm and charisma of Sean Connery and the actual acting of Timothy Dalton to deliver a take on cinema's most famous spy that revived the flagging series as both entertaining escapism and a culturally relevant blockbuster franchise.